A Picture Worth a Thousand Words
by DreamsofAnotherReality
Summary: The nations will not be forgotten, even when the world has ended.
1. Chapter 1 of 2

**I was watching the movie "War Horse" (which is a lovely film by the way) for the billionth time when I was struck with the inspiration to write this story. It'll probably be a two part short story so please await chapter 2. This was a kind of spur of the moment thing so please forgive me if it's terrible.  
**

* * *

The girl enters the building. Said building was obviously quite grand and luxurious long ago judging by the marble and once gleaming glass that makes up the structure. Now, the marble has huge cracks in it, the glass is shattered and stained with dust. The girl enters the building carefully avoiding the broken glass that litters the floor, if the world was still intact she would never have even dreamed of invading this building without permission but that's the thing, the world is no longer intact. The apocalypse occurred months ago. It all started with a sickness that spread around the world, by the time a vaccine was created a good chunk of the world population was deceased. Then came the natural disasters; hurricanes, typhoons, floods, earthquakes every terrible natural disaster known to man had plundered earth's surface. By the time everything calmed down, countries were destroyed and an already scarce population was almost entirely wiped out. Now, what was left of earth's population spent their time scavenging around the ruins of the world, searching for food and shelter. Little makeshift towns were created, but the girl had no wish to join any of them, she was more of a loner.

She enters the once grand building in hopes of finding food or better yet blankets, nights were very cold in this new world. Inside the building, there are many rooms, most of them are empty having been raided long before the girl had come. She finds one room however that is untouched. There is nothing valuable inside, only piles of boxes stacked one on top of the other.

The girl reaches up and plucks one of the boxes from the pile, she lifts the lid off and blows off the dust that has accumulated. Inside are papers, they look quite official and they all have a variety of signatures and stamps. The papers have very boring titles ranging from:

**Official Economic Report Of North Italy**

to

**Trading Affairs in Northern Europe**

The girl guesses that this building must've been a government building before the apocalypse. Closing the lid of the box she reaches for another one. She is surprised to find that in this box there are mounds of pictures and picture albums. She looks at one of the pictures, in it a very pretty brunette with vivid green eyes and pink flowers adorning her hair is choking what seems to be an albino man. The brunette looks angry but laughter and joy gleam in the green eyes, on the back of the picture "_Hungary choking Prussia" _is written in messy handwriting. The girl wonders why country names are used, perhaps they were nicknames?

The girl reaches for another picture, in it three terrified looking men are smiling hesitantly. Two of them have blond hair albeit the shorter one has curly hair while the taller one has straight hair with glasses. The one in the middle has brown hair and green eyes that gleam with uncertainty. Fear practically radiates off of them, but they seem happy enough. On the back, in the same messy handwriting as before "_The Baltics: __Latvia, Estonia and my bro Lithuania" _is scrawled.

Intrigued by these pictures the girl reaches for yet another one. In this one, a shy looking bespectacled young man with long blond hair stands beside a similar looking man however without glasses but with the same long curly blond hair. The shy looking one smiles softly and contentiousness glimmers in his violet eyes whereas the man standing beside him is smiling confidently and self assurance beams in his blue eyes. The girl flips the picture over and low and behold the messy handwriting is there again this time reading "_My brother Canaja? Canaria? Canadia? and France."_ The description gets the girl wondering what kind of person forgets the name, or in this case the nickname, of their own brother, the girl assumes that the name was meant to read "Canada".

She reaches for another picture. This picture shows 5 young men conversing. Two of the men must be brothers since they look so alike, one of the two brothers has a cross hair clip adorning his hair while the other one has some sort of bird sitting on top of his head. The tallest of the five has his hand on the shortest's shoulders. The tallest one looks intimidating but he showcases a small smile while the shortest one has a facial expression that portrays both happiness and fear. The second tallest one has spiky hair and is grinning with his arms around the two brothers. The brothers don't seem happy about being embraced by the grinning man. On the back of the picture "_The Nordics: Finland, Sweden, Iceland, Norway and Denmark fooling around!" _is written.

* * *

The girl looses track of time while looking through the pictures. For a while she forgets the sorrow and terror of the apocalypse. She is drawn in by the smiles and happiness of these unknown people. She starts to get a sense of what these people were like. "Belarus" was probably feared by everybody considering that in pictures the people around her stay a safe distance away. "Russia" was probably intimidating and scary too but in a different way then "Belarus". Russia is always surrounded by others in pictures but the people surrounding him look terrified with the exception of a blond nicknamed "Poland". "Poland" and "Lithuania" were probably very close friends. "Poland" is sometimes shown wearing girls clothing in the pictures while "Lithuania" looks on exasperated and stressed out.

"South Korea" appears to be a go-lucky boy who makes the best out of every situation. "China" looks wise in some of the pictures, but in others he is holding Hello Kitty merchandise and beaming like a child. "Japan" rarely shows any facial expression but the girl sees a few pictures of him with small tentative grins. "England" seems to be a bitter being, most if not all the pictures show him frowning or yelling but there are a few with him grinning, the girl thinks he looks better when he is smiling.

The pictures tell stories of these people's lives. Of their happiness and joy. The girl begins to feel attachment to them, these people with the strange nick names.

The girl wonders what has happened to them. Did they die? Did they live? She especially wonders about the person who wrote the descriptions in messy writing at the back of every picture. She is almost certain that the describer is a male seeing as "dude" and "bro" are used quite a bit. Hours pass and eventually there are two pictures left in the box. She reaches for one.

It is a group picture, everybody is lively. The girls knows the nicknames of all the strangers because she has spent hours looking at pictures of them and reading the descriptions on the back of every picture which usually stated the identity of those in the photo. "Hungary" is grinning with her hard in "Austria's". "Prussia" has his arms around "Germany" with a wicked smile, "Germany" has a small smile too. The "Italies" are waving towards the camera, "Romano" with a pout and "Italy" with a beaming smile. The "baltics" are near the front giving nervous grins, "Poland" is hugging "Lithuania" from the back with an ecstatic facial expression. "Russia" stands with "Belarus" and "Ukraine" on either side of him, he seems a bit distressed. "Thailand" and "India" seem to be instructing "Vietnam" on how to smile properly. "South Korea" has his arms around "China" laughing while "China" looks like he's going to topple over from the weight of him.

"Japan" is standing next to "Taiwan" both with happy faces. "England" is yelling at "France" while "Canada" is attempting to calm them down. "Hong Kong" has a blank facial expression, the "Nordics" seem to be arguing about something and "Norway" is glaring at "Denmark". "Greece" and "Turkey" look like they're about to start a brawl but "Egypt" stands in the middle of the two calmly. "Romania" holds "Moldova" in his hands as "Bulgaria" watches the aforementioned two with amusement. "Australia" and "New Zealand" are side by side as are "Belgium", "Netherlands" and "Luxembourg" ."Seychelles" just smiles and "Monaco" is looking straight at the camera with an apologetic look. "Switzerland" and "Lichtenstein" stand a little distance away from the rest of the crowd, "Switzerland" is holding a gun and looks like he is contemplating whether he should use it or not. "Spain" and "Macau" are having a pleasant conversation, neither of them seems to notice that their picture is being taken.

On the back of the picture it simply says "_Group picture. World meeting 2014" _in the same messy handwriting. 2014 was the year that the calamity began, the year the sickness started to spread around. This would have been the last "World Meeting" before the end of the world. The last time the strange group of people would laugh and argue. The last picture. The last gathering.

The girl reaches for the last picture in the box, it is a man who resembles "Canada". The man has sparkling blue eyes with a funny little cow lick. He has a picture perfect grin and is caught mid laughter. On the back it says "_Selfie time!"._ This is the man who wrote the descriptions on every picture. The man who took the pictures. The girl wonders what happened to him, and to his friends. She wonders if this man is still smiling somewhere in this cruel world, is still laughing and taking pictures. She carefully puts all the photos back into the box, but one. She slides the group picture into her pocket. She likes the group picture, it reminds her that life was not always so cruel. That once upon a time a group of people with the strangest nick names laughed with one another and lived care free lives.

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** The "girl" in this story isn't any of the Hetalia characters by the way, it's just some random person. The story is a little vague...sorry for that! The girl knows so much about the countries because she literally spent hours looking through thousands of pictures of them. The person who wrote the descriptions on the back of all the pictures was America by the way, the girl assumes that America's using the Country names as nick names or something.**


	2. Chapter 2 of 2

**2 WEEKS INTO THE APOCALYPSE  
**  
America paces his living room nervously.A sickness is currently spreading through Asia and is beginning to move towards Europe. North Korea's entire population is decimated, North Korea herself died in South Korea's arms. South Korea is sick and nearing death too. He lost contact with most of Asia after North Korea's death and doesn't really know what's going on any more. England is far enough from Asia that he like America and Canada is faring quite well. America doesn't know what's going on in Africa or the rest of Europe actually. His government and people are in a panic, his President has cut off all trading with Asia which is killing his economy. Is this how the world will end? He can't help but think.

* * *

A month has passed since the sickness began to spread. The disease has made it's way to central Europe and America is panicking. Nations have gone into isolation in an effort to protect themselves from the plague.

* * *

2 months have passed since the sickness first appeared. The disease has made it's way over to the Americas, America can feel his people dying. He can feel their fear and their sorrow. Canada is with him, they have been ordered by the Prime Minister and President to stay in America's house, their rulers do not want the personifications to get sick as well.

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Canada seems to believe that the end has come. There are reports of natural disasters plundering Europe, and the vaccine to the sickness has yet to be found.  
"This is the end. The apocalypse. Armageddon, whatever you want to call it." Canada murmurs to America one morning as he sits at America's dining table sipping coffee.  
"Bro...don't say that. Come on keep positive..."  
"America, we're cut off from the world right now. How are we to know whether every other nation is dead or not? For all we know you and I could be the last living countries. This is it. This is the end." Canada snaps. America looks at him surprised, his northern brother rarely ever loses his temper or raises his voice above a whisper.

* * *

England calls on the 5th month. The phone rings and America rushes to pick it up.  
"Hello?"  
"Listen up America, I don't have much time to talk. The queen's given me specific orders not to make contact with anyone outside of Europe but to hell with that, I don't see how contacting you will change my predicament."  
"England? Dude, what's going on in Europe?" America asked.  
"The sickness and natural disasters have wiped out a good chunk of the European population. The countries and people that are still alive have gathered in Italy."  
"Dude...the European population is way to big to cram everybody inside of one country..."  
"Not any more America..." England sighs, he sounds tired and worn out.  
"How...How many Countries are dead?" America whispers.  
"Romania, Hungary, Switzerland, Latvia, Iceland, Monaco, Cuba, Greece, Bulgaria, Moldova, Seborga, Poland and that little snot Sealand." England's voice cracks on Sealand.

America finds it suddenly hard to breathe. So many. So many dead.  
"Any word from Asia and Africa?" America asks softly.  
"None from Africa. Taiwan was able to call us last month, South Korea is dead and Thailand was close to dying too. The rest of the Asians have gathered everybody at China's place and set up refuge there."  
"England...is this really it...the apocalypse?" America can't help but ask.  
"I don't know America, I honestly don't know." England answers. The answer scares America, England has lived a long time. England has seen the black plague plague, the fall of various empires, several wars and several deaths. If England isn't brushing this supposed "apocalypse" off as nothing, then it is something to be taken seriously.

"America I don't think I'll be able to call again. There isn't enough people to maintain power in Europe and to work the satellites and such. This will probably be the last time we talk, for a while anyway."  
"Yeah...Good luck England. Say hi to everybody ok?" America requests trying to keep his voice from trembling.  
"Of course. Good bye you git, you and your brother better be alive the next time we meet." The line goes dead

* * *

America disobeys his President. He sneaks out of his house at night and heads towards the local building where world meetings are always held. In his hand is a box. Inside the box is every singly memorable picture he owns. He's going to stash the pictures in the building. He knows that the world is truly ending. Sooner or later food will run out, and people will panic. The government will fall, and laws will be broken. People will begin to scavenge and America's house is a fairly nice one, people will surely break in, in hopes of finding food and resources. America doesn't want his pictures to be harmed when that happens. No rational being would break into a government building to find food and tools. All government building have are treaties, and stacks of official reports. No food, no blankets, nothing useful. No one will break in.

America enters the building. It is made of marble so it won't burn if some lunatic were to try and set it on fire. His pictures will be safe here. America wonders why he wants to protect his photo collection so much. He isn't a very sentimental person, but he feels an alarming need to protect the box in his hand.

No one is inside the building. There used to be security guards posted at every corner but there is nobody now. America opens the door to the world meeting room. The long table where the nations all sit is there, dust has settled on top of it from being out of use for so long. In the corner are stacks of boxes. Inside are reports and other boring paperwork. America sits down and opens the box in his hand one last time.

The pictures inside make him laugh. There is one of Hungary strangling Prussia because the Prussian made fun of Austria. Hungary is dead now, but she is very much alive in the photo.

There is another photo of the Baltics smiling softly. America snorts at how scared they look, even when asked to do something as simple as smile for a picture.

One picture catches his eye. It's a group picture. America remembers that day clearly. It had been the end of the last world meeting before the whole apocalypse thing began. America had asked every nation to gather together for a photo.

"_Why the hell would we do that? Pictures are useless anyway." _Romano had snorted.  
"_It sounds like fun! Germany can we please do it! Please Germany, please!"_ Italy had begged.  
_"It's only natural that America would want a picture of the awesome me!" _Prussia had cackled.

Eventually all the nations had agreed.

America carefully places all the photos back into his box and places said box on the very top of the stack. He finally realizes why the photos mean so much to him. The pictures are evidence. They are evidence that the nations existed. That there used to be someone name Elizaveta Hedervary who was really Hungary and liked to smack people with frying pans. They were proof that Vash Zwingli the personification of Switzerland had lived, that a small boy named Raivis Galante who was really Latvia had cowered under Russia's gaze. They showed that Emil Steilsson who was really Iceland had refused to call his brother "oni-chan"and that a blond named Feliks Lukasiewicz who was actually Poland cross dressed and drove Lithuania crazy. The pictures prove that all the nations who are dead had once lived.

There is no proof of the nations existence outside of these pictures, since the governments of the world want to keep the personifications a secret the drivers license, house license, birth certificates and just about everything else the nations own are fake. But the pictures are real.

America wants someone to find the box one day. He wants someone to know of their existence. That Alfred F Jones the living, breathing personification of the United States of America and his friends had existed.

Even if all the personifications die, he wants someone to know that they were real. That they too had laughed, argued and fooled around. America wants the nations to be remembered, even when the world has ended.

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**I'm not going to lie, I like the first part better than this...  
****I kind of want to make a part 3 to this little short story too. ****To avoid OCC problems (since I can't write OCC's to save my life) I avoided the mention of any nation that has not been introduced in Hetalia.**


End file.
